Tuesday, 22 May 2012

Akis Tsochatzopoulos and the System

Former PASOK minister Akis Tsochatzopoulos
has, for whatever reasons, released his private papers to the media. Mr.
Tsochatzopoulos is in detention while legal proceedings are underway against
him for bribery and money laundering. The origins of this prosecution date back
to bribes on military contracts, and were originally revealed by German
prosecutors prosecuting the Siemens and Ferrostahl cases, but also by Greek
press investigations into real estate purchases by his wife.

A useful summary is available on his Wikipedia profile.
According to this, Mr. Tsochatzopoulos held a variety of critical ministerial
posts which have long been associated with large-scale public expenditure and
all the attendant corruption effects this gives rise to:

My intent with this post is not so much to
recount the allegations against Mr. Tsochatzopoulos, as to raise some questions for the future:

a.Is Mr. Tsochatzopoulos’ health
and safety in the Greek prison system assured? What steps are being taken to
guarantee this?

b.What judicial and financial resources
are being assigned to this case by the interim government, and what commitments
are being made by the leading political parties to ensure that these resources
will be continued after an election?

c.How is it that his papers have
been leaked, and what right does the entire journalistic community of Greece
have to reproduce and comment on them in the public domain? While I can
understand that this creates a momentum for prosecution, it also enables
potentially guilty parties to make preparations for their own defence (and
evasion), which is no doubt already underway.

d.Tracking down the money trail
will involve specialised support and intra-judicial cooperation, notably with
Cyprus. What steps are being taken for this to avoid the debacle of that seen
in the Vatopedi “investigation”, where Greek requests for information on the
beneficial ownership of Cypriot IBC companies were routinely stonewalled?

A final note: assuming this case is indeed
investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent, it will most likely unveil
corruption involving not only the PASOK party system, but also major Greek and
foreign suppliers, including those of Germany, France, and the United States.

Should this be the case:

e.What steps will be taken to
lift parliamentary immunity and the statute of limitations on crimes committed
by individuals under previous governments?

f.What steps will be taken to
assure their safety, but also to assure that they will not flee the country, as
other key figures in corruption scandals have done?

In my opinion, the fair and "professional" prosecution and trial of Akis Tsochatzopoulos and his associates would be a
serious sign that Greece is finally serious about cracking down on high-level
political corruption.

This creates a serious burden of
professional practise and objectivity not only among the civil service and
justice system, but among the very political parties who have the most to lose
from such an investigation and prosecution.

Unfortunately, precisely for these reasons,
there may be few chances that a real investigation and prosecution is permitted
to take place. We should remember that, as with Menios Koutsogiorgas in 1991, the ultimate statute of limitations is determined by survival.

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